A growing number of experts is questioning Israel's claim about this, arguing that the government of the Jewish state is committing serious war crimes with its actions.
Palestinian officials just confirmed that at least 22 hospitals and 49 medical centers in the besieged Gaza Strip are either no longer operational because Israel shut off their utilities, or the facilities have been bombed or shelled and no longer exist.
Right now, Gaza's largest hospital and medical center, al-Shifa, is completely surrounded by Israeli tanks that are shooting at anyone who tries to flee. There are said to be thousands of people still stuck inside al-Shifa with nowhere to go and no way to even escape.
Ever since Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, Israel has been telling the world that Hamas militants are hiding in civilian facilities like hospitals, universities and schools, though there is no concrete evidence to prove this.
"It's a controversy of facts," says human rights lawyer Noura Erakat. "And in this instance, Israel has not a shred of evidence that this is true."
(Related: Israel has its sights set on removing everyone from Gaza and turning part of the land into a new Ben Gurion canal between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea – Israel also wants Palestine's rich maritime natural gas reserves.)
After 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel adopted "Dahiya doctrine" to justify murdering civilians
Many people, especially those with Zionist leanings, try to argue that Israel is fully justified in bombing civilian targets because Hamas operates in tunnels underneath civilian facilities – and we are supposed to just believe that without proof.
It is a specious claim that really took shape after Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Known as the "Dahiya doctrine," Israel adopted this narrative as a convenient cover, which "basically transformed civilian targets into military ones," according to Erakat.
"We see the emergence of the framework of human shielding from 2006 to the present," she adds.
In other words, Israel adopted the Dahiya doctrine as a way to justify its routine calls for collective punishment against its enemies. If there is even just one Hamas militant hiding in a hospital, then Israel feels it has the liberty to destroy the entire place, patients, doctors and all.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog admitted to this back on October 13 when he tried to claim that "an entire nation" – referring to the roughly 2.2 million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip – is responsible for the October 7 false flag attack on Israel, which would not have been possible, by the way, had Israel not ordered a seven-hour stand-down.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant similarly called all Palestinians "human animals" on October 9, just two days after the false flag attack, arguing that Israel now has the right to completely obliterate Gaza so it can continue to "exist."
More recently, Israeli Minister of Agriculture Avi Dichter revealed that Israel's plan all along is to produce another "some sort of Nakba," referring to the mass displacement of Palestinians that occurred immediately following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
Israel also continues to claim that Hamas tunnels are everywhere underneath civilian facilities in Gaza, which necessitates bombing all of them and killing everyone, including ill patients and even babies in intensive care units (ICU).
"Hospitals have special protections under international humanitarian law," says Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch. "It does not suffice to say that armed groups are using hospitals for military purposes."
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